Reports, leaks and any number of rumors surrounding the mysterious Microsoft Surface Smartphone have been doing the rounds pretty much ever since the idea of the first Surface Tablet was floated. And as we now know, even if Microsoft plans or had planned to launch its own Smartphone, it’s certainly in no hurry to rush it the market.

Well, just when we thought it was safe to sweep Surface Phone chatter under the rug for a while at least, new evidence comes to light that somewhere behind the scenes, the device is real as it gets. In prototype form at least, as according to sources quoted by The Verge this week Microsoft has been beavering away behind the scenes putting a variety of would-be Surface Phones through their respective paces.

We’re told that the project either is, was or will be under the control of one Terry Myerson, who toward the beginning of the year stated that a pure-Microsoft phone would only ever see the light of day if the firm felt the best wasn’t being extracted from its Windows Phone OS by its mobile tech partners.

Curious timing for these reports to crop up as not only has no Nokia or HTC Windows Phone to date come close to breaking any records, but Microsoft has just recently taken the reins at Nokia for a substantial sum. Chances are Ballmer and Co. at Redmond can’t be particularly thrilled with the way in which Nokia has peddle Windows Phone – the firm practically went out of business due to poor sales and lack of both consumer and investor confidence.

In theory therefore the timing could not be better for a pure Microsoft Surface Phone to hit the mix. What would undoubtedly be the firm’s answer to Google’s Nexus Smartphones, chances are we’d be looking at an impressively powerful device built for purpose and with a curiously low price tag to boot.

In any and all cases, a 2013 release date is pretty much out of the question.

Let’s just hope that if and when the Surface Phone doesn’t arrive, they haven’t followed the same recipe for failure that doomed the Surface Pro and RT tablets to early graves.